[Debian-eeepc-devel] Anyone used PXE network boot on 901?

[Phil Endecott]

Phil Endecott wrote:
> I've always used PXE network booting to start the Debian installer, 
> rather than a CD or USB flash drive.  I find this method quick and 
> easy, but since this wasn't mentioned as an option on the Debian Eee 
> wiki I had guessed that it wasn't possible on the Eee.  However, my 901 
> definitely has PXE as an option (once you have found the right BIOS 
> settings) and it has just booted into an old Debian installer it found 
> on my tftp server (predictably, it gets as far as "no ethernet card was detected").

A progress update:  I'm using the latest PXE netboot debian installer, 
which runs on the Eee but unsurprisingly doesn't contain the necessary 
ethernet kernel modules.  But I happen to have a USB ethernet device 
for which it does have the modules.  So, I set up the BIOS for network 
booting, it loads over the built in ethernet, and I then swap the 
network cable over to the USB adaptor and it installs debian using 
that.  So I now have a basically functional system.

Next to get the built-in wired ethernet working.  There are some notes 
in the Wiki from IsaacTo who points to 
http://kunin.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/asus-eee-pc-901/; that page tells 
me to go to 
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?product=1&SLanguage=us-en&type=map&model=P5KPL-CM 
to get a driver for the wired ethernet from ASUS.  When I click on that 
link I get a page that's not related to the Eee, but if I click on 
"Drivers" there is something described as "Supported Linux Drivers"; I 
download a the zip, inside which there's something called 
l1e-l2e-linux-v1.0.0.4.rar which looks good.  But unrar-free fails to 
unpack it.  Luckily, wobzip.org can convert it to a .zip for me.  Then 
I install linux-headers (and a compiler etc) and I can compile and 
install it (using KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 and ignoring the warnings).  It 
then almost works, but I have to clean out 
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net so that it is eth0 not eth1.

Now I just have to work out all the things that you've put in the 
custom installer that I've missed, and to get the wifi working.


Cheers,  Phil.